The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for detecting sounds from a human body and displaying the detected sound information, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a portable apparatus which enables to not only collect minute sounds from a human body, such as the heartbeat of an unborn baby or the pulsation of an ordinary person and amplify the collected sounds over a speaker, but also display feature values of the collected sounds such as the number of heartbeats and the amplitude of the beat sounds in relation to reference feature values, and to the method employed therein.
In daily lives, people often want or need to listen to some minute sounds from their bodies. For example, a pregnant woman may desire to listen to her unborn baby""s heartbeat and ascertain if her baby is in good condition. Some people may want to check their pulsation while doing exercise.
Such tasks, however, are not easy to do and sometimes require time and cost. To check an unborn baby""s heartbeat, the mother should go to hospital with special instruments designed exclusively for the object, which results in the loss of time and money. To count the number of beats as a measure for maintaining the amount of exercise constant, one should feel one""s artery at the wrist and count the number of beats during an interval and calculate the number of beats per minute using the counted number, which might be troublesome.
The present invention has been developed to solve the foregoing problems. It is a primary object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for detecting sounds from a human body and displaying the collected sound information, the apparatus being portable and easily used to collect minute sounds from a human body and amplifies the collected sounds over a speaker.
The apparatus for detecting sounds from a human body and displaying the detected sound information according to the present invention comprises sound collecting means for collecting arbitrary sounds, extracting means for extracting feature values from the collected sounds, storing means for storing the extracted feature values, comparing means for comparing the extracted feature values with representative values of previously extracted feature values, displaying means for visually displaying the relation between the extracted feature values and the representative values, and updating means for updating the representative values to include the last extracted feature values.
The method for detecting sounds from a human body and displaying the detected sound information according to the present invention comprise the steps of 1) intermittently collecting sounds from a human body, 2) extracting feature values of the intermittently collected sounds, 3) updating previously calculated representative values to include the extracted feature values, and 4) displaying the updated feature values and extracted feature values.
Used usually as a portable device like a wrist watch, the apparatus according to the present invention collects intermittent sounds by properly positioning the sound collecting means when needed, extracts feature values of the collected sounds using the extracting means, and stores the extracted feature values in the storing means.
Next, the apparatus compares the extracted feature values and representative values of previously obtained and stored feature values using the comparing means and displays the comparison result in a visually appealing manner using graphs. The representative values are updated to include the newly extracted feature values so that the updated representative values can be used in the next measurement.
The apparatus for detecting sounds from a human body and displaying the detected sound information according to the present invention enables visual display of feature values of collected sounds in relation to the average of the previously obtained feature values as well as simply collecting minute sounds from a human body and amplifying the collected sounds over a speaker.
The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the sprit or essential features thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.